{"id":382506,"date":"2026-04-05T01:50:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T01:50:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/382506\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T01:50:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T01:50:27","slug":"rally-in-coleraine-hears-concerns-around-immigration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/382506\/","title":{"rendered":"Rally in Coleraine hears concerns around immigration"},"content":{"rendered":"

A rally in Coleraine has heard concerns around immigration, as well as challenges from a counter protest.<\/p>\n

The event was billed as the launch of a movement called Our Northern Ireland Voice.<\/p>\n

It calls for stopping HMOs (houses in multiple occupation), closing \u201cmigrant hotels\u201d, deporting all illegal immigrants immediately and keeping \u201cour children safe\u201d.<\/p>\n

Around 200 hundred people heard speakers outside Coleraine Town Hall, while trade union members staged a counter protest nearby.<\/p>\n

The rally finished with a procession around the Co Derry town amid a police presence.<\/p>\n

\"Anti-immigrationRichard Inman addresses demonstrators during an anti-immigration protest outside Coleraine Town Hall (Brian Lawless\/PA)<\/p>\n

Speakers included Richard Inman who told those assembled of a \u201cspiritual battle\u201d against a \u201cgreat evil that has come upon these islands in the last 50 years\u201d.<\/p>\n

The counter protest played music and chanted slogans during the speeches.<\/p>\n

Inman continued: \u201cI call it the great army of darkness, the Islamists, the communists, and the globalists, and that\u2019s who we\u2019re fighting against.\u201d<\/p>\n

He told the counter protest that he was \u201clouder than you\u2019ll ever be\u201d to cheers from his supporters.<\/p>\n

He went on to say he genuinely believes that there are people in political parties \u201cthat are evil and satanic\u201d, and criticised the legalisation of abortion.<\/p>\n

\u201cNorthern Ireland used to be a heartland, it was the bible belt of Christianity in Europe, and we\u2019re losing that,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Dan Grundle criticised Belfast as having become \u201cunrecognisable\u201d, as well as in Coleraine, referencing \u201chotels full of migrants\u201d and condemning a \u201chousing crisis\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to start demanding accountability from the so-called people in charge,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\"Anti-immigrationPatrick Mulholland addresses counter protesters (Brian Lawless\/PA)<\/p>\n

Later, Nipsa deputy general secretary Patrick Mulholland responded by challenging Our Northern Ireland Voice, claiming it had \u201cpromised 2,500, and they turned out 200\u201d.<\/p>\n

A number from the rally heckled as Mulholland said in 1984 the National Front tried to march in Coleraine, and were \u201cseen off by the organised working class\u201d.<\/p>\n

He contended that the current leader of the National Front, Tony Martin, was in attendance, and said those ideas \u201cbelong in 1984\u201d, to cheers from the counter protest.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a message for any ordinary people who have been polluted by the snake oil salesmen of the far right, and our message to them is, we welcome a conversation and a discussion with you about what the future should look like with homes for all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A rally in Coleraine has heard concerns around immigration, as well as challenges from a counter protest. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-382506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}